USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 18
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The decision, which was criticised by Godfrey as contrary to evidence, was to the effect that Fore River was the true Casco and that all of the land east of that boundary belonged to Cleave.§
An appeal from the verdict was taken to Godfrey, Gorges and Vines, who reviewed the entire case on or about July 29, 1642, and reversed the preliminary decision by finding that the Presumpscot was the "River of Casco" and the true eastern boundary of Trelawney's territory.
But the victory of the defendant was short-lived. The next year Cleave returned to England to obtain further relief. There he faced a dubious outlook. While chiefly instrumental in secur- ing for Gorges the governorship of the Northern Colonies six years before, he could expect no immediate help from that source. The British government was in a state of war. His former patron, then over seventy years of age, had resumed active mili- tary service at the request of his sovereign, and his New England affairs were being neglected.
As an alternative course he sought an alliance with Sir Alex- ander Rigby, an influential member of Parliament who was con- . cerned with the foreign policies of the realm.
As a theme of mutual preference Cleave directed the attention of the statesman to the possibilities of the New World. He even advocated the purchase of the Lygonia patent which had been in existence for a dozen years, although its owners had accomplished
t Me. Doc. Hist., 3-908. 233, 246, 273.
$ Me. Doc. Hist., 3-240.
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nothing in the way of settlement. Some of patentees had died in the interim, and the concession was described by Vines as having lapsed into "an ould broken title."*
Rigby was easily convinced that acquisition of the defunct patent of Lygonia would increase his political prestige by a re- vival of royal interest in the Province of Maine. April 7, 1643, the transfer was effected. He purchased the shares of two sur- viving patentees for trifling considerations.
Cleave, on the other hand, was advised by Rigby to present his grievance to Parliament and in order to obtain consideration was directed to file a petition endorsed by a substantial number of the residents of New Somersetshire.
The document was alleged, owing to the exigencies of the occasion, to have been fabricated in London by the complainant himself. Upon it were exhibited the names of thirty-one plant- ers commorant in the settlements of York, Wells, Cape Porpoise, Saco, Scarborough and Casco Bay. It was presented to Parlia- ment upon the day following Rigby's acquisition of Lygonia. The accompanying address asked for a commission to review the adverse decision of Godfrey and Vines.
The efforts of Cleave were successful and April 28, 1643, the commission was ordered. It consisted of John Winthrop and Edward Gibbons of Boston, Henry Boade of Wells, Arthur Mackworth of Casco, and Thomas Morton, who was then in England.i
When the warrant reached this country it was forwarded to Casco to secure the depositions of Godfrey and Vines with such other evidence as they might be able to offer. The Boston mem- bers would not serve, and Mackworth refused to act as magis- trate on account of what he considered technical defects in legal procedure. He also disclaimed his signature on the preliminary London petition. Andrew Alger, William Hammond, Francis Robinson, John Smith, John Wadley, Henry Watts, Peter Weare, John West and John Wilkinson, followed suit later.
The other men who made no protest were John Alcock, John Baker, Bartholomew Barnard, Joseph Jenks, Edward Johnson, Henry Lynn, George Puddington and Henry Simpson, of York; Henry Boade, of Wells; Ambrose Berry and William Reynolds,
* 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 7-353.
+ Brit. Proc., 1-143.
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FORE RIVER
of Cape Porpoise; John Bonython, William Cole, George Frost, Anthony Newlands, Thomas Page and William Smith, of Saco; and Arnold Allen, Michael Mitten, William Royal and Richard Tucker, of Casco.
As an alternative course the appellant then administered sup- pletory oaths to two of his colleagues who could be induced to attest the genuineness of the entire petition. Such action gave Vines sufficient reason to complain to Winthrop that the whole proceeding had been fraudulent from the beginning.
Thus far the controversy had netted but little advantage to either party and the status of Machegonne remained unchanged save for a confirmation of the title by Rigby May 23, 1643.}
That statesman proceeded to outline a form of government for his part of New Somersetshire between Wells and Pejepscot and appointed Cleave "deputy president" with authority to dis- pose of his lands. Fortified by his new commission the deputy organized a rival regime, defined the territory of the province and executed leases of extensive tracts.
January 23, 1643-4, a court was convened at Casco on the same day as that at Saco. Both factions became belligerent, but finally were induced to await further instructions from Parliament.
During the armistice Cleave and "about thirty" of his sup- porters appealed to Winthrop for protection against the Gorges administration and requested membership in the confederation of Massachusetts colonies, which had been formed during the previous year.
A month later Vines appeared at Boston with a letter signed by all of Gorges' commissioners and "between 20 and 30" other inhabitants of the province. The figures indicate that the total census of adult planters in New Somersetshire at that time was only about sixty. §
The ownership of Maine real estate was destined to become more complicated. While control of the local government was in doubt and title to the site of Portland was being litigated, new claimants began to encroach upon Capisic lands in the interior. July 12, 1649, Squidrayset, sagamore of Presumpscot, conveyed 2400 acres of the territory situated between Fore River and
# York Deeds, 1-94.
$ Winthrop, 2-155.
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Amuncongen (Westbrook) to Francis Small, the Indian trader. These premises were acquired subsequently by John Phillips. Other adverse interests were imminent at any stage, for Indian deeds, properly executed, were recognized by the General Court .*
As agent for Rigby interests Cleave sold a house lot on the western side of Fore River, above Long Creek, to Joseph Phip- pen, a fisherman who had an interest in the establishment at House Island. This deed was dated September 30, 1650, and de- scribed an hundred acres which must have been bounded on the south by the early homestead of Michael Mitten.
Cleave made sales, during the same year, from his own tract on the other side of the river to his son-in-law, in 1651, to Nich- olas Bartlett, of Cape Porpoise, and May 20, 1658, to his grand- son Nathaniel Mitten. At the last date he had disposed of the remaining land along the shore, with two exceptions, as far as Presumpscot River .;
He was facing old age and financial ruin from prolonged litigation with powerful opponents and September 26, 1659, as- signed his homestead and contiguous real estate to John Phillips, of Boston. This action was taken none too soon, for within a few months Robert Jordan, successor to the Trelawney estate, brought a counter suit for the recovery of Machegonne.
Original documentary evidence was produced at the trial and as a consequence the plaintiff obtained a favorable verdict. The defendant had already arrived at the level of pitiable destitution. Even the couch to which the aged and infirm wife of Cleave was confined was taken in satisfaction of a paltry execution.
* York Deeds. 20-108.
¡ York Deeds. 6-3 ; Me. Hist. Col., 1-72.
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THE CABIN AT CASCO
THE CABIN AT CASCO
Far-faring seamen Coasted the cape lands And threaded the channel That led to a harbor And islet surrounded By beautiful landscapes.
On this far islet In the lone harbor, Rough-hewn from the forest And fashioned from fir trees, They builded a structure- The cabin at Casco.
Vessels returning Over the ocean, Receded from vision Beyond the horizon And left there undaunted This household of toilers.
Often came thither Indian sachems, Who lived on the mainland, To truck with the planters In furs of the beaver, And otter and moose skins.
Wives from the homeland Lived not at Casco ; No voices of children Awakened the clearing, But cries of the sea-gulls And surge of the breakers.
Oft in the evening, Dreaming of Yuletide, They heard in the distance From over the water Faint chiming echoes From belfries of Devon.
Summers and winters Gazing to seaward,
They looked for their comrades To follow them thither, But vainly they waited While none came to join them.
Barnstable sailors Fishing and trading, Strayed into their clearing And drank to their prospects, But forthwith departed At end of the season.
Then came a morning, Never forgotten,
When incoming vessels Brought word to recall them
Once more to their country And arms of their loved ones.
Over the rooftree, Where they had sojourned In far-away Casco, To welcome the stranger, They left their loved ensign, The banner of England.
Time had passed onward. Immigrants later Reclaimed the lone harbor. Where once stood a cabin To-day stands a city --- The City of Portland.
But the fair islet Still forms a bulwark, A sentinel guarding The river and haven, Where gulls in the water Still sport with the surges.
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VIEW OF PORTLAND
PRESUMPSCOT RIVER
Indefinite allusion to the region about Casco Bay is to be found in the account of a Sagadahoc colonist which was discov- ered among the private papers of Sir Ferdinando Gorges after his decease.
That writer described a visit to the coastal section west of Sagadahoc. His party consisted of Captain Raleigh Gilbert and fourteen others who "sailed by many gallant islands, and * * were constrained to remain that night under the headland called Semeamis" (Cape Elizabeth).
After reaching Richmond Island and spending part of the next night there, they retraced their course homeward on August 30, 1607. Between Semeamis and Sagadahoc River was situated "a great bay" in which they encountered "many islands, so thick
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and near together" that they could not "well discern to number them."*
While Purchase ascribed the authorship of the anonymous document to James Davis, there is even stronger internal evi- dence that it was the work of Robert Davis. Whichever it may have been, the explorer's name was assigned to the headland of Cape Elizabeth and to Casco Bay, as late as 1631, when desig- nations of "Cape Davis" and "Baia di Davis" were conspicuous on Italian maps.
Captain John Smith examined the coast of Casco carefully in 1614, using a boat of shallow draft to enable him to approach the mainland at all points. His reproduction of the Indian name for that locality was Aucocisco, although he christened it Har- rington Bay.
Christopher Levett was a native of York, England. May 5, 1623, the Plymouth Council granted to him 6000 acres of land in New England which was not defined by metes and bounds. As the early patentees were not even familiar with natural bound- aries in the New World, it was understood that the land was to be chosen from territory not then occupied by Englishmen and that surveys were to be made and recorded with the council. In those days sea captains, accustomed to the use of nautical instruments in navigation, were generally skilled in engineering. Levett had been engaged for several weeks after his arrival in the country in surveying a similar tract for David Thompson at Pascataqua, although he never completed the undertaking on ac- count of its magnitude. The task was rendered almost impos- sible because of the presence of the virgin forests.
Levett came to Pascataqua by way of the Isles of Shoals and lived with Thompson in the new house at Little Harbor until his men, who had reached the eastern fishing grounds in "divers" ships, had arrived at his rendezvous. These employes were Eng- lishmen who had worked on the fishing vessels until the end of the season and had arranged previously to remain through the winter with Levett.
After exploring the coast of Maine as far east as Cape New- agen Levett returned to Quacke, where he had decided to found a city by the name of York in honor of the English municipality of that name.
* Mass. Hist. Proc., 18-106.
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The narrative of the settlement at Quacke, written by Levett himself in 1624, contains internal evidence that his house was located upon an island, to and from which Indians passed "over the harbor" in canoes. Samuel Maverick, who must have seen the post many times and may have lodged there, asserted that Levett had a patent for 6000 acres of land at Casco, "which he tooke up in this Bay neare Cape Elizabeth," where he "built a good House and fortified well on an Island lyeing before Casco River."+
Levett himself located "Quacke" about "two leagues to the East of Cape Elizabeth," and described it as "a Bay or Sound betwixt the Maine and certaine Ilands which lyeth in the sea about one English mile and halfe * * * going up within the Ilands to the Cape of Sagadahock" (Small Point). His final comment was, "After many dangers, much labour and great charge, I have obtained a place of habitation in New England, where I have built a house, and fortified it in a reasonable good fashion, strong enough against such enemies as are those Savage people."#
The testimonies of William Gibbons, who had known the river before any house was built at Casco, and of other persons who had frequented it soon after, proved beyond question that the Presumpscot was known originally, and for many years after discovery, as Casco River. Its identity was determined, in 1642, by justices Godfrey, Gorges and Vines. The name "Chasco" was given to the Presumpscot on the earliest extant map of the prov- ince before 1655.§
The statement of Maverick was made about five years after the ancient map was engraved, and the site of Levett's fortified dwelling must have been on Mackworth's Island, which lay be- fore the mouth of the Presumpscot River and contained about forty acres of tillable land. A year before Maverick issued his statement, in a second suit between Cleave and Robert Jordan, who had succeeded to the title of Trelawney, the same issue was again raised, and the Presumpscot was judicially determined to be the "River of Casco." The decision must have been known to all planters at the Eastward as well as Boston traders like Maverick.
៛ Mass. Hist. Proc., 21-232.
¿ Baxter's Levett, 105.
§ Me. Doc. Hist., 3-231. 239, 246, 250 ; Jenness' Eng. Doc.
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PRESUMPSCOT RIVER
Heretofore, the assumption that Levett's habitation stood upon House Island was based upon the belief that Fore River was the original Casco, and that the name of House Island implied a particular significance in itself. But that islet was settled after 1640 by some of Trelawney's discharged fishermen, of whom Nicholas White was one. Before that date Winter and his assist- ants had lived upon Richmond and Stratton's islands.
MACKWORTH'S ISLAND, CASCO BAY
Levett, who was a surveyor as well as sea captain of experi- ence, placed his location "two leagues to the East of Cape Eliza- beth" and within a bay a mile and a half wide. The eastern limit of such measurement must have been the house at Casco, which as a fortified post was intended to become the nucleus of a great English seaport, to be called York. Directly opposite his station were situated the 6000 acres-near, but not at, Cape Elizabeth and in Casco Bay.
A strong inducement for the selection of this site at the mouth of the river was the proximity of an Indian village, which lo- cated only a few miles upriver at the first fall in the Presumpscot, attracted many influential sagamores. The only experiments undertaken at Casco by Levett were with planting and trading. Before settlement on the premises he had examined the general character of the soil on both sides of Presumpscot River.
The proprietor of the house at Casco intimated that, during his sojourn at the post, Thomas Weston, without license from
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the council, had intercepted his legitimate trade with the natives by weekly incursions upon a neighboring river and, when ordered to desist, had threatened to assault him in his own house.
"At this place," said Levett, writing in Casco in 1624, "there fished divers ships of Waymouth this yeare." Other casual vis- itors at Quacke during that spring were a sea captain who had fished at Cape Ann, Robert, son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and In- dians from miles around, some of whom he had met at Pascataqua.
When Levett was about to leave the country in midsummer, as indicated by his ignorance of local conditions after July, all the sagamores of Northern New England assembled to bid him farewell. Those named were Chief Sadamoyt, of Penobscot; Robinhood (Manawormet), of Sagadahoc; Runacwitts (Oppar- runwit), of Pentucket (Haverhill, Massachusetts) ; Squidrayset (Skedraguscett), of Presumpscot; Cogawesco, of Casco and Quacke; Samoset (Somersett), of Pemaquid; and Passaconway (Conway), of Pennacook (Concord, New Hampshire).
He sailed for England in one of the fishing vessels at the close of the fishing season which ended with June, 1624, leaving at the house at Casco ten of his men-the same number taken to Pascataqua by Thompson the year before. Save the fishing plan- tation at Monhegan Island there appears to have been no other English establishment in Maine at the time of his departure.
Nothing is known of the history of the Casco colony during the following year, but there must have been fishermen in the harbor that summer. In the fall of that year Edward Winslow from New Plymouth must have passed the island on his way to Kennebec River to trade corn for furs with the Indians.
In 1626, Thomas Morton may have tarried at the house at Casco on his voyage eastward, where he secured the spring beaver trade at Kennebec to the detriment of Plymouth Colony. This same year Peter Garland, John Cousins and John Mills were fishing in the locality. Some years later Morton remarked: "I have seene in one Harboure, next Richmond Iland, 15 Sayle of shipps at one time, that have taken in them driyed Codds for Spaine and the Straights."*
In 1627, John Winter was in the harbor with the Consent from Plymouth and commanded a fishing crew which seined for bait in Presumpscot River. When he cited the fact in 1640, none
* N. E. Canaan, 86.
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of the men who had then worked for him were living in Maine. The nature of their work did not detain them in the country. He was authority for the statement that "4 ships of Weymoth did fysh at Casco that yeare," of which the masters were Arthur Guyer, William Lash and Henry and Joseph Russell, and that their crews were "divers others about Plymoth and Barnestable."+
In June, 1627, plainly alluding to Morton, Bradford deplored the fact that the unconscionable dealings of some of the baser European traders with Maine Indians, in that and the preceding year, had made it dangerous for the English to remain in the East "after the fishermen are gone."
Levett mentioned no one who was resident at Casco, although in one of his letters to Sir John Coke, written November 17, 1627, he was on the point of instructing his "servants" who still remained in New England "to come away wth there shippes that ar now going to fish there," if his plan to fortify the eastern coast should fail. He had already recommended Casco as a per- manent base for a naval police patrol and described conditions similar to those reported by Bradford :
"The tyme of danger is from the begininge of June to the last of January or therabouts All wch tyme there is no English shipps uppon that coste ffor the fleet of ffishermen doe comonly arive there in January and ffebr: The fishinge contenewes untill the begininge of May and by the ende of that month comonly they dept.
"The maner of the ffishermen is to leave there shallops in the Contry untill the next season every shipe in that harbor where they fish. There may be of them in all about 3 or 400 and if they want there botts they may easily be pvented.
"If an enemy should come it is likly that they will put into the first harbor they make for it is dangerous lyinge longe for shipps uppon that coste wthout extraordynary good pilotts. The coste beinge full of depe bayes broken islands and souncken rocks. Now they can come into no harbor but they shall fynde botts for the transportinge of there men alongst the costes to any place they desier wherin is the greatest danger for they cannot march by lande And it is not like that there will come any great flett to take up many harbors the planters beinge in all not above 300.
Me. Doc. Hist., 3-250; Mass. Hist. Proc., 47-188.
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"The first thinge wch I conseve fitt to be done is that all men be comanded at the end of there voyage to bringe all there shal- lops into one harbor and there to have them untill the next yeare And the fittest harbor I conceve to be quacke (but by me in my discovery named Yorke) beinge the most princepall in the Con- try and in the mydst of all the fishinge."
June 9, 1628, all of the New England plantations "wher any English were seated" contributed to the expense of deporting Morton, who had ranged the whole coast and been convicted of trading arms and ammunition with the Indians.}
It is significant that Casco, Richmond Island, Monhegan and Penobscot, some of the oldest settlements in Maine and situated in the center of the exposed district, were not named. The posi- tive inference is that the house at Casco had been abandoned at the return of the fishing ships earlier that season.
It is obvious that the dream of Levett, to make Casco a com- mercial center and the principal New England port of entry, was not to be realized. And so terminated the first European occu- pation of Casco Bay, where had been located, in the words of Levett, "the Land which was granted me by Pattent and made choyce of before any other man came there."§
THE SECOND OCCUPATION OF CASCO.
According to a claim of George Cleave, the first permanent settler of Casco, the house and island of Levett at Quacke were sold by the latter to Thomas Wright, the merchant of Bristol. This transaction was effected late in 1628 after the premises had been abandoned by Levett's men.
The new owner must have done some trading at Casco during 1629 because complaints were made before John Endicott and his associate justices that Wright was forwarding contraband articles which were sold by his agent at the Eastward.
At that time Endicott, who had arrived September 8, of the previous year, was chief executive of the Salem administration, and he continued to have special jurisdiction as late as 1633, when about twenty-two of his "lawes" had been submitted to the lords to be approved for use within his district .*
¿ Bradford, 2-161.
§ Baxter's Levett, 107.
* 3 Mass. Hist. Col., 9-257.
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May 27, 1629, only ten days after the date of execution of the Wheelwright deed at Squamscott and early enough to have been dispatched on the outgoing ship in which Oldham had arrived, Endicott wrote a letter to his company in which he complained of the unlawful commerce of "former traders to those parts" with the Indians and recommended that some action be taken. The complaint does not disclose the name of any transgressor. His communication was referred by the company to a subcom- mittee in England.
While, throughout New England, the sale of arms and am- munition to the Indians was regarded as adverse to English in- terests in event of hostility and had been prohibited by royal edict, the French who lived in fortified camps in Nova Scotia were not bound by British edicts. Some had made fabulous profits from unrestricted barter, not only by extortion, but be- cause the natives recognized the superiority of the new firearms and soon became so proficient in their use that the fur supply was increased automatically.
Wright was not long in discovering that contraband articles were most coveted by the warlike eastern tribes and brought the best returns in beaver skins. Accordingly, when forwarding supplies to Casco in the spring of 1630, he included a large con- signment of lead, powder, shot and rapier blades, which were used as darts to kill beaver.
From what transpired it is obvious that this prohibited mer- chandise was freighted on board the Lyon in the custody of Levett, although passengers and provisions were shipped a few weeks later directly to Casco on the Swift which belonged to Wright. When the cargo of the Lyon was overhauled at Salem the contraband was exposed.
It is evident that the latter vessel was the one implicated for it was the only ship in Salem Harbor when the Arbella arrived on June 12. Winthrop had been chosen governor before leaving England. Upon his advent in the country he had superseded En- dicott as chief executive and was the proper official to consult with relation to laying an embargo upon contraband.
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